Masum, Maliki meet on Baghdad-Erbil crisis, parliamentary elections

Baghdad (IraqiNews) President Fuad Masum met on Saturday night with his Vice President Nouri al-Maliki to discuss the crisis between Baghdad and Erbil.

During the meeting, Masum and al-Maliki urged Baghdad and Erbil governments to immediately start talks on how to solve the current crisis ignited by Kurdistan’s independence referendum. They also stressed the importance of holding parliamentary election on time and maintaining Iraq’s unity, the Iraqi Presidency said in a Sunday statement.

The meeting tackled the latest political developments in Iraq and the region and effort exerted by the Iraqi army to eliminate IS terrorists, the statement read.

The two sides also called for strengthening confidence among political parties in Iraq based on the Iraqi constitution and constructive dialogue.

In October, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that it had frozen the results of a referendum that overwhelmingly backed Kurdish independence to avoid war with the Iraqi government.

“As Iraq and Kurdistan are faced with grave and dangerous circumstances, we are all obliged to act responsibly to avoid further violence and clashes between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces”, a statement from the KRG said.

The statement followed tensions between Baghdad and Erbil that build up over the 25 September referendum in Kurdish territories.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, for his part, demanded that Kurdish leaders should cancel the results of the independence referendum, rejecting Erbil’s proposal to “freeze” the outcome instead.

“We accept only the cancellation of the referendum and the adherence to the constitution,” Abadi said.